All posts by Parth Dhebar

Parth Dhebar is a 18 year-old entrepreneur. He is the founder of Simple Reviews, a blog focused on reviewing iPhone and iPad applications. Parth is a recognized name in the industry, known for covering Apple news. He is an editor at Techie-Buzz covering news on Apple. You can follow him on Twitter @pdparticle.

NPD DisplaySearch analyst Richard Shim claims that a high resolution display is in production for a rumored 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display, reportsCNET. The analyst cites supply chain sources and claims that the initial output values are expected to be higher than the current 15-inch version. It is also reported that the display being produced for the 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display features a resolution of 2,560 by 1,600 pixels. That is compared to the current version’s 1,280 by 800 pixel screen.

Shim also claims that Samsung, LG Display, and Sharp are all making the new 13-inch screen to meet a high initial volume compared to the 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display’s launch in June. The analyst also pointed out that the manufacturing capabilities of the three different suppliers can factor into how many displays will be ready for assembly.

“With 15.4 it’s production of a few hundred thousand units versus one to two million for the 13.3,” he said. That 13.3-inch production began in the third quarter.

I would assume MacBook Air with Retina displays are still far away since the amount of power and internal space required is much higher than what the current design can handle. Apple has been rumored to be launching the 13-inch MacBook Pro and an iPad mini in October. In the meantime, Apple is expected to reveal the next-generation iPhone.

After Apple’s massive victory, Apple CEO Tim Cook sent an internal memo to Apple employees regarding the favorable ruling received against Samsung. The Apple vs. Samsung jury found Samsung guilty of infringing many of Apple’s design patents and awarded damages of more than $1 billion to Apple.

In the memo, Cook said that the lawsuit was leveled “reluctantly and only after repeatedly asking Samsung to stop copying [Apple’s] work.” In 2010, Apple presented evidence to Samsung, which outlined the various patents thought to be infringed by Samsung. The email was republished by 9to5Mac.

Today was an important day for Apple and for innovators everywhere.

Many of you have been closely following the trial against Samsung in San Jose for the past few weeks. We chose legal action very reluctantly and only after repeatedly asking Samsung to stop copying our work. For us this lawsuit has always been about something much more important than patents or money. It’s about values. We value originality and innovation and pour our lives into making the best products on earth. And we do this to delight our customers, not for competitors to flagrantly copy.

We owe a debt of gratitude to the jury who invested their time in listening to our story. We were thrilled to finally have the opportunity to tell it. The mountain of evidence presented during the trial showed that Samsung’s copying went far deeper than we knew.

The jury has now spoken. We applaud them for finding Samsung’s behavior willful and for sending a loud and clear message that stealing isn’t right.

I am very proud of the work that each of you do.

Today, values have won and I hope the whole world listens.

Tim

Tim Cook also noted Apple’s principles, and pointed out that the lawsuit was less about money and patents than it was about values. He concluded by thanking his employees and announced that “Today, values have won and I hope the whole world listens.”

After three days of careful discussion, the jury finally reached a unanimous verdict in the Apple vs. Samsung trial. The verdict largely went in favor of Apple, ruling that Samsung had indeed infringed on both Apple patents and trade dress for the iPhone. However, the jury was in favor of Samsung regarding its tablets. That to me was surprising because the Galaxy Tab 10 looks awfully similar to the iPad’s design. The jury concluded that Samsung owes Apple $1.05 billion in damages for infringing on Apple’s intellectual property. Samsung has also been awarded no damages. Ouch!

After the verdict was revealed, Apple’s stock price rose to an all-time high, more than $675 per share, in after hours. In fact, exactly one year ago today, Steve Jobs resigned as CEO. Today, Samsung owes over $1B to Apple. Well done, Tim Cook! Epic day for Apple indeed. Also, does the quote “I’m going to destroy Android, because it’s a stolen product. I’m willing to go thermonuclear war on this.” – Steve Jobs ring a bell?

The three week trial consisted of testimony and evidence from both sides. A 9-person jury was asked to fill out a 20-page jury form with more than 700 questions across 33 groups. They were required to make a unanimous decision on each question and reports suggested that a verdict wasn’t expected until at least next week. MacRumors has a fantastic overview of the patents that were under question during the trial.

People have shown concerns of this decision harming innovation, but I disagree. No, this verdict does not harm innovation. From now on, new types of innovation will occur, which is an excellent thing. It is much needed. Don’t feel sorry for Samsung. They stole years of hard work and there’s a price to be paid for that.

Rumors regarding Apple entering the television market have been around for some time. Today, Fortune highlights a new analyst report published by Pacific Crest’s Andy Hargreaves. This report was written after a meeting on Wednesday with Apple’s CFO Peter Oppenheimer and Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services.

Hargreaves’s analysis of the meeting was that Apple’s television would be “extremely unlikely” in the near term. His report would backup the recent claim that Apple was in talks with cable providers to potentially build a set-top box that would handle live TV programming. It has also been said that Apple has yet to strike a deal with any cable operators possibly due to reluctance on the part of content providers.

Relative to the television market, Eddy Cue, Apple SVP of Internet Software and Services, reiterated the company’s mantra that it will enter markets where it feels it can create great customer experiences and address key problems. The key problems in the television market are the poor quality of the user interface and the forced bundling of pay TV content, in our view. While Apple could almost certainly create a better user interface, Mr. Cue’s commentary suggested that this would be an incomplete solution from Apple’s perspective unless it could deliver content in a way that is different from the current multichannel pay TV model.

Fortune’s Philip Elmer-DeWitt notes that SEC rules prohibits sharing insider information that might have material affect on the company’s stock, which means that Hargreaves’ report is just that. His report talks about Apple delivering a “great customer experience and addressing key problems.”

Today, Apple released OS X 10.8.1. OS X 10.8.1, which is the first maintenance update to OS X Mountain Lion. The update is available via Apple’s site or via the Software Update feature which now directs users to the Mac App Store for updates. This update to OS X is also very iOS-like. I just love the consistency here. OS X 10.8.1 fixes issues with Migration Assistant, Exchange, and iMessage issues. If your Mac is running OS X Mountain Lion, you will definitely want to update.

This update includes general operating system fixes that improve the stability and compatibility of your Mac, including fixes that:

– Resolve an issue that may cause Migration Assistant to unexpectedly quit
– Improve compatibility when connecting to a Microsoft Exchange server in Mail
– Address an issue playing audio through a Thunderbolt display
– Resolve an issue that could prevent iMessages from being sent
– Address an issue that could cause the system to become unresponsive when using Pinyin input
– Resolve an issue when connecting to SMB servers with long names
– Address a issue that may prevent Safari from launching when using a Proxy Automatic Configuration (PAC) file
– Improve 802.1X authentication with Active Directory credentials.

The update is Build 12B19, up two build numbers from last Friday’s developer seed. OS X 10.8.1 is 24.2 MB download via Apple’s website. However, when download through the App Store, the update is just 7.8 MB. It seems that Apple has finally begun delta updates for OS X. Delta updates were first introduced in iOS 5 last year.

Rumors up to this point have pointed towards an iPad mini and next generation iPhone revelation at the same time. However, Daring Fireball’s John Gruber makes a strong case for why Apple would hold two separate events. He suggests that since the iPhone is Apple’s single most important product, it would be unlikely that Apple would share the spotlight with another product. Gruber’s points are very valid and makes an excellent point. His theory of two events is that one will be for the iPhone and iOS 6 and then hold a second “iTunes” event to talk about the smaller iPad, new iPods, and possibly the rumored iTunes 11 update. Last year’s iPhone 4S event was nearly 100 minutes long covering iOS 5 and the revelation of a new iPhone.

Famous Apple journalist Jim Dalrymple also hints at two separate events. He is known for his “yep” confirmations to Apple rumors and has posted a message suggesting that Apple will hold two separate media events this fall for the new iPhone and iPad mini.

It was previously been confirmed from many sources that Apple will hold a media event on September 12th to announce a new product, which is presumed to be the next-generation iPhone and an iPad. However, Dalrymple’s track record makes it seem possible that the new iPhone will be revealed first and a smaller iPad later in the fall during a separate event.

Today, Facebook released a completely rewritten iOS app, which took more than six months of work to build. The brand new app is a native app and is twice as fast. Facebook engineers have also dumped the HTML5-based app and rebuilt it using Objective-C programming to make it perform more like a native iOS app. It was built from the ground up using Apple’s iOS SDK. The app update has already been made available.

“Up until now we’ve looked at scale,” iOS Product Manager Mick says, “but we’ve become aware that while we have a great mobile website, embedding HTML 5 inside an app isn’t what people expect.”

In addition to significant speed improvements, Facebook has also added a bunch of features and tweaks straight from the iOS SDK. New animations and gestures are a nice touch too. One new feature is a “New Stories” banner that pops up at the top of your screen while you browse the News Feed. Another new feature is a gesture that enables easier one-handed browsing when you are browsing a photo.

I have been testing out this brand new version and can already notice significant improvements. Finally! Facebook for iPhone is available for free via the App Store. [Direct Link]

In the past, Apple has made some incredible and unique advertisements in the advertising/tech history. These ads includes the company’s popular “1984” and and “Think Different” ads. However, the latest three “Genius” ads Apple released during the Olympics were very unlike Apple. These “Genius” ads portrayed an Apple Genius employee helping new Mac owners figure out a solution for simple problems. In fact, even people among the Apple community did not like these ads at all. I personally did not like these tasteless ads either.

Earlier this month, we reported that Apple had removed its “Genius” Mac ads from its homepage. Today, Apple has removed the “Genius” TV ads from its YouTube channel and from the Apple.com marketing page for the Mac. The ads were poorly received among viewers and critics even asked if it was a good idea to make potential customers seem clueless. However, some people also thought that the ads were excellent because they demonstrated the support options available to non-technical Mac buyers.

Apple has not removed any older advertisements from its websites and YouTube over time, but the company still has ads on YouTube from as far back as November 2010.

Ahead of the new iPhone launch, the rumor mill is in full swing. Today, Reuters reports that LG has officially announced that it has started a mass production of news displays. These displays are rumored to make their way into the next-generation iPhone. In fact, this news follows similar comments from Sharp as MacRumorspointed out earlier this month. This news comes just three weeks ahead of Apple’s expected media event to introduce the new device.

The report also claims that the new iPhone displays will be measured at four inches diagonally and will have in-cell technology to embed touch sensors directly into the display, which would help decrease the thickness of the component. The Wall Street Journal also has a similar report discussing Apple’s plans for the panels.

WSJ’s report also goes on to say that LG, Sharp, and Japan Display are all producing displays with in-cell touch sensors for the next-generation iPhone. It is also reported that these suppliers will be able to meet their production goals despite the challenges of the new technology.

Technology Review highlights the evolution of security that has occurred on the iPhone. The article notes how Apple has been able to gain acceptance among the government and enterprise by overcoming its initially loose stance on device security to roll out industry leading encryption options. These options help defeat essentially all attempts at accessing properly protected devices.

At the heart of Apple’s security architecture is the Advanced Encryption Standard algorithm (AES), a data-scrambling system published in 1998 and adopted as a U.S. government standard in 2001. After more than a decade of exhaustive analysis, AES is widely regarded as unbreakable. The algorithm is so strong that no computer imaginable for the foreseeable future—even a quantum computer—would be able to crack a truly random 256-bit AES key. The National Security Agency has approved AES-256 for storing top-secret data.

In a a recent white paper (PDF), Apple has highlighted this hardware security. Such hardware security involves the incorporation of a unique AES-256 key fused into each iOS device and which can not be directly read. In addition, access to the device’s software can be restricted via a PIN passcode. In fact, to break iOS passcodes, brutal force attacks are required and needing the device to be run at 80 milliseconds per.

Most of the information in the article is not, but the article does offer an overview of the layers of security Apple has built into its products.